The Recital of the Bird

A [Persian] translation by the Tongue of
Truth [of Avicenna’s] Recital of the Bird, by the leader of the world, the
learned of the age, the sultan of the scholars and philosophers, the Master
(shaykh) and Meteor of the Religion (shihabuddin) Suhrawardi, may the mercy of
God be upon him.

~~~

Is there none among my brothers who will
lend me an ear for a time, that I may confide some part of my sorrows to him?
Perhaps he could fraternally share my burden. For the friendship of a friend is
not unalloyed unless, in good as in evil fortune, he guards its purity from all
stain. But where shall I find so pure and sincere a friend, in a time when
friendship has become a trafficking to which one turns when the necessities of
a situation require an application to one's friend, whereas one ceases one's
attentions to him as soon as the need is gone? No longer is a friend visited
save when you yourself have been visited by misfortune; no longer is a friend
remembered save when some necessity has restored your memory. There are, it is
true, brothers united by the same divine kinship, friends who are brought
together by the same frequentation of what is above; they contemplate the True
Realities with the eyes of inner vision; they have purified the depths of their
hearts from all stains of doubt. Such a society of brothers can be assembled
only by the herald of a divine vocation. Are they so assembled? Then let them
receive this testament.

Brothers of Truth! Impart your secret one to
another. Meet together, and let each raise before his brother the veil that
hides the depths of his heart, so that each may instruct the other, and that
you may all realize your perfection through one another.

Brothers of Truth! Retire as the hedgehog
retires, which in solitude displays its hidden being and hides its apparent
being. As God is my witness! it falls to your hidden being to appear, while it
falls to your apparent being to disappear.

Brothers of Truth! Strip yourselves of your
skins as the snake casts his. Walk like the ant, the sound of whose steps none
hears. Be like the scorpion that ever bears its weapon at the end of its tail,
for it is from behind that the demon seeks to surprise men. Take poison, that
you may remain alive. Love death, that you may still live. Be ever in flight;
choose no settled nest, for it is in the nest that all birds are captured.

If you have no wings, steal wings, get them
by sleight, if need be, for the best of illuminators is what has the strength
to rise in flight. Be like the ostrich that swallows burning stones. Be like
the vultures that gulps down the hardest bones. Be like the salamander that lets
itself be wrapped in flame, at ease and confident. Be like the bat that never
come out by day; yes, the bat is the best of birds. Brothers of Truth! The
bravest man is he who dares to face his tomorrow; the greatest coward is he who
dares to remain behindhand with his own perfection.

Brothers of Truth! it is nowise surprising
if the Angel flees from evil, whereas the beast commits wickedness, for the
Angel has no organ of corruption, while the beast has no organ of
comprehension. No, what is surprising is that a human being, invested with
command over his evil desires, should let himself be subdued by them, while yet
he has within him the light of intelligence. But truly, like to the Angel
becomes that man who stands firm under the assault of evil desires. But he
whose strength does not suffice to drive away the evil desires that tempt him, that man does not even reach the rank of the
beasts.

And now, let us come to our recital and
explain our sorrow.

Know, O Brothers of Truth, that a party of hunters went into
the desert. They spread their nets, set out their lures, and hid in the
thickets. For my part, I was one of the troop of birds. When the hunters saw us, they tried to
attract us by whistling so delightfully that they put us in doubt. We looked; we saw
an agreeable and pleasant place; we knew that our companions were beside us. We
felt no uneasiness, and no suspicion kept us from setting out. So we hastened to
the place, and suddenly we fell into the snares. The meshes closed on our
necks, the strings entangled our wings, the cords hobbled our feet. Every
movement that we tried to make only tightened our bonds the more and made our situation more
desperate. Finally, we gave ourselves up for lost; each of us thought only of his
own pain and no longer considered that of his brother. We tried only to
discover a ruse to free ourselves. And in the end we forgot what a fall our condition had undergone. In
the end we ceased to be conscious of our bonds and of the narrowness of our
cage, and there sank to rest.

But one day it happened that I was looking
out through the meshes of the nets. I saw a company of birds who had freed
their heads and wings from the cage and were ready to fly away. Lengths of cord
could still be seen tied to their feet, neither too tight to prevent them from
flying nor loose enough to allow them a serene and untroubled life. Seeing
them, I remembered my earlier state, of which I had lost all consciousness, and
what had long ago been my familiar fellowship made me feel the wretchedness of my present state. Would that
I might die, I thought, from the excess of my grief, would that at the mere
sight of their departure my soul might noiselessly slip from its body!

I called and cried to them from the depths
of my cage: "Come! approach! teach me by what sleight to seek deliverance;
sympathize with my suffering, for truly I am at the end of my strength."
But they remembered the ruses and the impostures of the hunters; my cries only frightened
them, and they hastened from me. Then I besought them in the name of the
eternal brotherhood, of the stainless fellowship, of the unviolated pact, to
trust my words and to banish doubt from their hearts. Then they came to me. When I questioned them
concerning their state, they reminded me thus: "We were prisoners of the
same suffering as thine; we too have known despair; we too have been made
familiar with sorrow, anguish, and pain." Then they applied their treatment
to me. The cord fell from my neck; my wings were freed from their bonds; the
door of the cage was opened to me. They said: "Profit by thy
deliverance!" But again I prayed to them: "Free me also from this
hobble that still clings to my foot." They answered: "Were it in our
power, we should have begun by removing those that encumber our own feet. How
should the sick cure the sick?" I arose from the cage and flew away with
them. They said: "Far on, straight before thee, is a certain country; thou
wilt not be safe from every danger until thou hast crossed all the distance that
separates thee from it. Therefore, follow in our track, that we may save thee
and lead thee by the right way to the goal thou desirest."

Our flight led us between the two flanks of
a mountain, through a green and fertile valley. We flew pleasantly on, until we
had passed all the snares, paying no heed to the whistling of any hunter.
Finally, we reached the summit of the first mountain, whence we saw eight other
summits, so high that eye could not reach them. We said to one another: "Let
us hasten! We shall not be out of danger until we have passed those mountains
safe and sound, for in each there is a company that is interested in us. If we
heed them, and linger in the charm of those pleasures and the quiet of those
places, we shall never arrive." With great labor we passed six mountains
one after the other and came to the seventh. When we had passed beyond its
borders, some of us said to the others: "Is it not time for us to rest? We
are spent with fatigue. We are far from the hunters now, for we have travelled a
long distance. An hour's rest will help us to reach our goal, whereas if we add
to our weariness now, we shall perish." So we halted on the summit of the
mountain. There we saw green gardens, beautiful palaces, charming pavilions;
there were fruit trees, streams of living water. So many delights refreshed our
eyes! Our souls were confounded, our hearts troubled, by so much beauty. And we
heard lovely songs, ravishing instrumental music. We inhaled perfumes that
not even the most exquisite amber and musk could approach. We gathered fruits, we
quenched our thirst at the streams of living water, lingering until we should
be completely rested. Then we said to one another: "Let us hasten! No snare
is more dangerous than false security; there is no safety save in vigilance, no
fortress so good as warning suspicion. We have already lingered too long here. To stay
longer would be dangerous. Our enemies are on our trail, seeking the place
where they may find us. On!"

So we renounced that place. Though it was so
pleasant there, our salvation was worth more. Having agreed to depart, we tore
ourselves from those scenes, and thus we came to the eighth mountain. Its summit
was so lofty that it was lost in the firmament. Birds peopled its slopes; never
had I heard such ravishing music, nor beheld such splendid colors, such
graceful forms, nor encountered such sweet companions. When we had come down
among them, they treated us with such charm, delicacy, and affability that
nothing created could describe it or make it comprehensible. When we were
perfectly at our ease with them, we told them of the sufferings we had endured.
They sympathized in them with the utmost solicitude. Then they said to us: "Beyond
this mountain is a city in which the supreme King resides. If any who are
oppressed come to implore his protection and trust themselves wholly to him,
the King by his strength and his aid frees them from all injustice and suffering."

Relying on what they told us, we determined
to reach the city of the King. We came to his court and awaited audience with
him. Finally, the order came that the new arrivals were to be brought before
him, and we entered his castle. We found ourselves in an enclosure whose vastness
no description could compass. When we had crossed it, a curtain was drawn up
before us, disclosing a hall so spacious and radiant that it made us forget the
first court, or, rather, compared with this, the other seemed of little
account. Finally, we reached the King's oratory. When the last curtain had been
drawn and all the King's beauty shone before our eyes, our hearts hung upon it
and were seized with a stupor so great that it prevented us from giving words
to our complaints. But he, perceiving our weakness, restored our assurance by his
affability; so that we were emboldened to speak, and to recite our story to
him. Then he said to us: "None can unbind the bond that fetters your feet
save those who tied it. Now will I send them a Messenger to lay it upon them to
satisfy you and remove your fetters. Depart, then, happy and satisfied!"

And now, lo! we are on the road, we are
journeying in company with the King's Messenger.

Whereupon my brothers pressed about me,
urging me to recite to them the beauty of the King. I shall describe the King.
I found him who is in full possession thereof. For all beauty, in the true
sense, is realized in him; all imperfection, even in the sense of a metaphor, is banished from him. By his
beauty, he is all a Face that thou contemplatest; by his generosity, he is all
a Hand that bestows. Whoever approaches him will have found supreme bliss;
whoever cuts himself off from him will have lost this world and the world to come.

. . . How many of my brothers will there not
be who, my recital having struck upon their ears, will say to me: "I see
that thou art somewhat out of thy wits, unless sheer madness hath fallen upon
thee. Come now! It is not thou who didst take flight; it is thy reason that has
taken flight. No hunter ever made thee his prey; it is thy reason and naught else that has been hunted down.
How should a man fly? And how should a bird fall to speaking? Verily, one would
say that the bile has overflowed in thy complexio and that siccitas has
taken its seat in thy brain. 'Twere well to diet: drink a decoction of thyme
dodder, take frequent hot baths, pour warm water over thy head, take
inhalations of oil of water lily. Then go on a light diet, avoid sitting up
late; and, above all, no overexertion of mind. For in the past we have always known
thee as a reasonable man, of sound and penetrating judgement. God knows how
greatly we are concerned over thy state. Seeing thee thus deranged, we feel
utterly sick ourselves!"

Oh, what a waste of words! and with what a
miserable result! The worst kind of discourse is this chatter with which people
are so liberal without any occasion! But in God be my refuge; toward men, my
freedom! He who professes another dogma will lose his life in the world to come
and in this world too, "for those who attack the first will one day learn
by what an overthrowing they shall be overthrown (Qur’an 26:227)."